


Tiny Ancient Things

by starghost



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-17 05:38:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5856223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starghost/pseuds/starghost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of shorter fic from back in the day, unrelated except by fandom. All originally posted circa 2004, I think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Owl Post

_Owl Post to Red-Head of Overwhelming Beauty:_ Bless me with your presence for a one hour meal and you will not regret it.

 _Owl Post to Speccy Git:_ Not until something even more unlikely happens. Like your best friends shagging each other.

 _Owl Post to Evans, You Sneak:_ NEVER HAPPENED!!!!  <3 a sexy beast rawr

 _Owl Post to the Amusing if Irritating Mr. Black:_ I never said anything happened. What happened? I keep good secrets. *winkwink* PS: You two make a cute couple, don't worry.

 _Owl Post to Miss Evans:_ Thank you. I think. No more on this subject. I think this means you have to go have dinner with James. Kindly, Mssr. Lupin.

 _Owl Post to All of You Berks:_ Why do you all read each other's mail? PS: Only if it's steak, and he doesn't touch me, and there's high quality pie for dessert.

 _Owl Post to the Lovely and Amazing Miss Lily Evans:_ Done  & done. Seven, tomorrow night, will meet in common room. (R sends his love, and S sends this large bar of expensive chocolate with absolutely no bribery implied, he swears.)


	2. Hypnagogic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hyp·na·gog·ic or hyp·no·gog·ic  
> adj.
> 
> 1\. Inducing sleep; soporific.  
> 2\. Of or relating to the state of drowsiness preceding sleep.  
> 3\. Relating to the images or hallucinations sometimes perceived during this state.

Remus has been laying in bed for nearly two hours when Sirius slips under the covers with him, worn out from detention and mistaking it for his own bed. In truth it is much closer to tripping into the bed, with Sirius clambering under the covers and kicking his shoes off the edge of the bed. He weighs the mattress down, unsettling the balance, and in his half-asleep stupor, Remus slides over to make room. Sirius mumbles a tired piece of gratitude.

Both of them are too close to the bliss of sleep for it to mean anything when Remus throws an arm around Sirius, as if to keep him from rolling off the bed, and Sirius burrows close to Remus. When his forehead brushes Remus's chin, Sirius mutters to himself curiously about stubble. He presses his face into the warmth in the crook of Remus's neck. Remus pulls his hand up to brush Sirius's hair away from his nose, causing Sirius to lift his head and push against the touch. He presses his lips against Sirius's forehead with a shushing sound, and Sirius nuzzles his way up Remus's face until they are nose to nose. Sirius kisses him softly on the lips, then nestles back to the way he'd be laying before. Remus blows his tickling hairs away, slowly falling full into sleep.

When Remus gets up for water in the dark hours of the morning and comes back to find Sirius in his bed, he shrugs and goes to Sirius's bed. In the morning when they wake for the day, neither of them think the bed exchange odd, but when Sirius tells them all at breakfast of a very real dream he had, Remus finds it too familiar, and avoids looking at Sirius through the rest of the meal.


	3. Despiritus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trio fic. Written before book 7 came out.

One moment they were utterly surrounded by confusion, wands firing off jinxes and hexes, and the next everyone stood stock still, staring to where the sun was rising, and a shadowed crowd ambled toward them. Most of the Death Eaters they were fighting slinked off into the darkness.

"Harry!" shouted Hermione. She pointed, her face horrorstruck. "Harry, it's-- They're--"  
  
Ron looked sick. "Inferi," he managed to get out.   
  
"Well? Fire, both of you!" Harry shouted. He let out a blast from the end of his wand, quickly followed by Hermione and Ron doing the same, until a wall of fire separated them from the living dead. Ron breathed hard, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.  
  
"Bloody zombies," he said. Luna, who had dropped to the ground when the Death Eater she'd been fighting disappeared, looked up and pointed with one shaky hand. Harry followed her gaze, and nearly dropped his wand.  
  
Dumbledore, or rather, Dumbledore's body, was stumbling through the flames. Harry couldn't speak, only stare.  
  
He heard Hermione shriek his name, and pull him back, as Dumbledore came nearer. "Harry! It's not him! It's an Inferi, it's not Dumbledore! We have to--"  
  
"But he came _through_ the flames, Hermione-- Inferi-- They can't--" Ron said, stumbling over his words.  
  
"It _was_ Dumbledore, though, and some of that must have carried-- And anyway, Harry saw him-- We saw the body." Hermione shook Harry, and spoke with difficulty. "Harry, you-- I can't-- You have to."  
  
Harry swallowed thickly. "I know." He stared at the figure, who once was Dumbledore, and slowly raised his wand. He repeated to himself that it wasn't him, that he had watched Dumbledore be murdered. It stumbled closer, and Harry took a deep breath.   
  
"You remember? _De_ \--"  
  
" _Despiritus_ ," Harry whispered. A dark bolt flew from his wand, hitting Dumbledore, and Harry watched him fall back into stillness once more.


	4. a blue true dream of sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> or, marauders on a sunny afternoon

"You know," Remus said, slowly, as he did when something potentially important yet also potentially ridiculous occured to him, "there is, that is to say, this coming summer is our last summer as free agents of--" He searched a moment for the right word. "Mayhem?"  
  
There was silence under the tree, except for the muffled sound of a Snitch like a captured hummingbird in James's hand. Remus would think that Sirius was asleep if it hadn't been for his foot bouncing on his knee, and that James was thinking of Lily in the library if not for that particular look in his eyes that generally meant good things.  
  
"That is a fair point," James said. He let go of the Snitch enough that he could pinch it between his finger and thumb, and it glinted there. Remus looked from the Snitch to Sirius and back again, between the golden glint of the contraband ball and the leaf shadows playing on Sirius's face and shoulder. He had hiked up his shirt as he stretched out earlier, letting the sun warm his belly. Sirius stretched now, kicking Remus's ankle.  
  
"We should," he yawned, "wreak havoc in London. Or would it be better in a small town?"  
  
"Do you have one in mind?" James asked. He reached over and tugged at a loose thread on Sirius's shirt, bunching the fabric of the hem. Sirius lay with arms stretched over his head, his clothes rumpled from his stretch, as James pulled the thread. He leaned down and bit it free, smirked triumphantly to himself as he tied the thread around the Snitch. Remus straightened Sirius's hem, his fingers automatically plucking at the now loose fabric.  
  
"Where's Lily's family? We could--" Remus stretched out on his side and raised an eyebrow at James.  
  
He waggled his eyebrows back, but then shook his head. "Bristol. Not a small place, really."  
  
"Doesn't take it out of the running," Sirius said. "Can't blame it for having a decent population."  
  
"Mmm," James hummed. He looped the thread around his index finger and let the Snitch go. It flitted, stretching the leash taut, and James had to bend and twist his hand to keep the erratic flight from wrapping the thread around his finger. Sirius flinched and rolled toward Remus when James made the ball flit in Sirius's ear. Remus let him stay for a moment, his belly pressed warm against the back of Remus's hand, before he rolled back and gave James a nasty look.  
  
"See if I wreak havoc anywhere with you if you keep that up," Sirius said, the threat undermined by the sun-drenched serenity in his voice. James rolled his eyes, his focus back on the Snitch, and drifting back to Lily, Remus suspected. Remus rolled onto his front next to Sirius without moving over. He drifted into a half sleep in the sun, his side lined up with Sirius's.


	5. Refrigerator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marauders era, post-school. Sirius faces some Issues with Less Magical living. Remus/Sirius.

Sirius had never lived anywhere with a refrigerator before. The hum was enormous, taking over the kitchen and seeping into the other rooms. He couldn't sleep the first night, instead stared at the ceiling in their bedroom, sheets kicked off in a pile on top of Remus.   
  
"Remus," he whined. "That thing is too loud."  
  
"You can't hear it over the fan," Remus replied without uncurling or opening his eyes. "You're imagining it."  
  
"Fan's loud too," Sirius muttered. If Remus responded to that, Sirius didn't hear it.  
  
Sirius allowed that magic had its own hum that shook the air, but it had always been there. Consistent. Warm. He remembered sitting near the front door as a child with his back pressed against the wood, the sizzle of protective magic, the red and black behind his eyes that he imagined warned everyone else not to come in. The refrigerator clanged on and off, and he could feel its vibration tickle the soles of his feet when he walked across the linoleum. Two months after he met Remus and James and Peter, he noticed that Remus whispered with a dark brown hum, so dark it was almost black; he only noticed because the four of them had been brawling and Sirius pinned Remus, and it was several years later before he put together that dark brown hum with the moon's faint changing glow.  
  
In the middle of unpacking on the third day (moving boxes the muggle way had been quite enough on day one; day two had focused on the bedroom and been interrupted by several enjoyable distractions therein) Remus had to remind Sirius in his quiet, tight voice that, yes, a wizarding neighborhood probably would be more convenient but they had discussed why a muggle flat was the only way, and they had discussed it plenty. Sirius sat at the kitchen table making silverware dance out of a box and into a drawer, and had only brought it up when the clang of the refrigerator jolted him and made him drop an entire place setting. Remus scooped them up by hand, and with his back turned to sort the pieces into the drawer, he answered. Short. A pause and the clink of a spoon, then-- "You could, though. Live where you want."  
  
The linoleum buzzed under his feet, suddenly standing with himself wrapped bodily around Remus.  
  
"Wanna live here," he said into Remus's hair. "I'll put my bed right here, on your shoulder."  
  
Sirius could feel Remus ease up, his fingers brushing Sirius's arms. Could feel his heartbeat, steady, always just a little faster than his own. He tilted his head enough to see the corner of Remus's mouth, the slight crinkle by his eye, and Remus's collar was just at the edge of his teeth so he could part his lips and catch his canine on the old fabric. He played with a button on Remus's shirt; wanted to undo it. Like he knew -- probably did -- Remus shifted and stepped so Sirius was just touching him, just barely.  
  
"Dinner's not far enough away," Remus said. "James and Lily'll be here soon enough."  
  
Sirius sat at the table again, finishing the dance of silverware, then mismatched dishes and a box of food. After he got rid of the last empty box, and Remus was taking his turn in the shower, Sirius stood in front of the refrigerator. He put his hands on its front, let the hum go from his toes on the dusty floor to his fingertips on the rounded door.  
  
The water in the next room turned off, and Sirius heard Remus's wet feet slap on the ground. He pressed his forehead against the refrigerator and closed his eyes. Maybe he imagined it, maybe he had always imagined these things, but he tried to believe a winter grey was shimmering behind his eyes; a muggle magic in its own right.


	6. Red and Gold Scarf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Young Sirius wanders through the woods and finds a Remus.

Sirius takes another step and winces as his foot cracks an invisible twig. Remus freezes, his head turned sharply. It feels like he holds his breath for ages, but after a few seconds Remus wrinkles his brow and starts walking again, his shoulders slumped. Sirius lets out a relieved breath, then freezes again at the loudness of the sound. He stands there with wide eyes, hoping Remus won't turn, but he spins around so quickly that Sirius doesn't have time to leap behind a tree or drop to the ground.  
  
" _What_ are you doing, Sirius?" Remus demands.  
  
"I felt like a bit of a stroll?" he says hopefully, and Remus relaxes back into his slouch. "James is in detention, you see, and no one except him is ever really up for a good prank. I was bored?"  
  
"Go back to the dorm." Remus looks young and tired, and wraps his arms around himself. "You don't want to come with me."  
  
"All I heard was 'come with me' in that," Sirius says with a wicked grin.   
  
"Go back, Sirius! Go now," he says looking at the fading light in the sky. Sirius glances at the sun curiously. The grin falls off his face in a sudden bout of understanding.  
  
"You--" he says.  
  
"What?" Remus says shakily. Sirius steps forward, and Remus takes a step backward. "I what?"  
  
"It makes sense now. I wondered why you came back so awfully quickly and so battered from visiting family. And they were really regular, the visits. James was wondering, but I didn't think..." Sirius says thoughtfully, then looks at Remus sharply. "Why did you lie to us?"  
  
"I--" Remus croaks, wide-eyed, then turns and runs. Sirius hesitates a split second before tearing off after him. He has to run at his top speed to keep Remus in sight, leaping over fallen branches and ducking to avoid low ones. When he loses sight of Remus, he slows to a jog, looking idly through the trees, trying to ignore the fact that he isn't completely sure how to get back to open ground.   
  
Sirius passes under a particularly knotty and shadowed tree and shivers. The light is getting dimmer, he notices, and then, with relief, he sees a red and gold scarf ahead of him. He hurries toward it only to find the scarf is tangled in a thorny branch. Disappointed, he stops to untangle it, though the threads are hopelessly pulled out of the knit and there's a hole near one end.  
  
As Sirius pulls the last threads from the thorns, he hears very quiet, shaky breathing not far away. He creeps toward a nearby tree, as wide around as a table in the common room. For a second he stands there, fingering the tattered scarf, then steps cautiously around the tree to see Remus sitting curled up amidst the gnarled roots, his head down.  
  
"Remus?" he ventures, and Remus looks up at him.  
  
"Don't you hate me now?" he asks wearily. Sirius scrunches up one side of his face, taken aback. He slides down the trunk and sits next to Remus, flush against his side.  
  
"This is yours," he says, holding the scarf in front of Remus, who stares at it wordlessly. He pulls it back into his lap. "Are you still the same Remus who pulled off complete innocence when he was caught handing out Nose-Biting Teacups to a group of first years? Aren't you still the Remus who reads those boring books to me when I can't get to sleep? Or have you suddenly become someone else?"  
  
"But I'm not--" Remus protests.  
  
"You're the same person, aren't you?"   
  
"That's the point! I'm not a bloody person, am I?" Remus explodes, pushing himself away from Sirius.  
  
"Oh, stop it! I don't _care_ that some idiots decided werewolves are some evil slavering beast every day of the year! You are _not_ that, Remus! Take it from someone who has to live with your incredibly normal twelve-year-old arse!" Sirius crosses his arms and looks sharply at Remus, who has pushed himself against a root sticking out of the ground and is still pushing at the ground with his heels as if trying to get away. He deflates a little and grabs Remus's ankle to drag him closer.   
  
"Please don't--" Remus starts. He lets Sirius drag him the short distance, putting up his hands to cover his face. "Don't pretend you still like me. You don't have to."  
  
"Remus," Sirius says, "you don't realize how bloody amazing it is to be friends with a werewolf, do you? What a secret! I mean--" He stops, almost incoherent with the idea, looking down at Remus who tentatively uncovers his eyes.  
  
"What?" Remus asks. Sirius glances away through the trees to collect himself, and Remus's eyes follow him. He pushes off the ground quickly and pulls Sirius up after him. "You have to go now," he says urgently.  
  
"Where will you be tomorrow, the Hospital Wing?" Remus nods, pushing at Sirius to move. "I'll see you there."  
  
Remus stands for the briefest of moments in the shadows of the trees after Sirius turns to bolt to the castle. He runs the last many yards to the Whomping Willow, pausing to take aim with a heavy rock before sliding into the tree for the night.


End file.
